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What happens next is too graphic to show on a family website, but stills of the recording reveal a pile of corpses where the men had knelt.

It was apparently filmed by Syrian rebels as the fight for control of the desert nation intensified. It has been impossible to verify the graphic content of this video.

Chilling: Even through the grainy images of this amateur recording, the guns in their captors' hands are clear, as is the punishment awaits them

Sport of war: A few rebels raise their guns and open fire on the unarmed men

Graphic: What happens next is too graphic to show on a family website, but stills of the recording reveal a pile of corpses where the men had knelt

Meanwhile, President Assad issued a rousing battle cry to his troops insisting that their battle against rebels would determine Syria's fate.

The written message, appearing in a statement in the military's magazine to mark armed forces day, gave no clues to his whereabouts two weeks after a bomb attack hit his inner circle.

Defiant: President Assad issued a rousing battle cry to his troops insisting that their battle against rebels would determine Syria's fate

Assad has not spoken in public since the bombing in Damascus on July 18 killed four of his close security aides although he has been seen on television.

'The fate of our people and our nation, past, present and future, depends on this battle,' he said.

In
confronting 'terrorist criminal gangs' - the government's usual term
for the rebels, the army had proved it had 'the steely resolve and
conscience and that you are the trustees of the people's values', he
said.

In the northern
city of Aleppo, rebel fighters seized three police stations while
fighting the army for control of a strategically important district.

Explosions
could be heard on Wednesday morning and helicopter gunships cruised the
skies as government forces tried to push the rebels out of the historic
city and preserve one of Assad's main centres of power.

The Salaheddine district in the
southwest of Aleppo has been the scene of some of the worst clashes,
with shells raining dwon for hours at a time.

While
the Syrian army said at the weekend it had taken control of
Salaheddine, scrappy street fighting was still underway with neither
government forces nor rebels in full control. Salaheddine resembles a
ghost town, its shops shuttered, with little sign of normal life.

'The
regime has tried for three days to regain Salaheddine, but its attempts
have failed and it has suffered heavy losses in human life, weapons and
tanks, and it has been forced to withdraw,' said Colonel Abdel-Jabbar
al-Oqaidi, head of the Joint Military Council, one of several rebel
groups in Aleppo.

Oqaidi, who defected from the army six months ago, told Reuters that more than 3,000 rebel fighters were in Aleppo.

Devastation: Explosions could be heard on Wednesday morning and helicopter gunships cruised the skies as government forces tried to push the rebels out of the historic city and preserve one of Assad's main centres of power

Still fighting: A Syrian rebel fighter loads an anti-aircraft machinegun atop an armoured vehicle in the northern town of Atareb, 25 kms east of Aleppo

According to an NBC News report, the
rebels have acquired nearly two dozen surface-to-air missiles, which
were delivered to them via neighbouring Turkey. The missiles could tilt
the battlefield balance if the rebels were able to shoot down government
helicopter and war planes.

The
fighting has proved costly for the 2.5 million residents of Aleppo, a
commercial hub with an ancient Old City that was slow to join the
anti-Assad revolt that has rocked Damascus and other cities.

Thousands have fled and those who remain face shortages of food and fuel as well as the risk of injury or death.

'We
have hardly any power or water, our wives and kids have left us here to
watch the house and have gone somewhere safer,' said Jumaa, a
45-year-old construction worker.

Street fighting: Syrian rebels commandeer a police vehicle during clashes with government troops in the Salhin district of the northern city of Aleppo

Masked fighters: Colonel Abdel-Jabbar al-Oqaidi, who defected from the army six months ago, told Reuters that more than 3,000 rebel fighters were in Aleppo

War games: A Syrian boy jumps off a destroyed army armoured vehicle in the northern town of Atareb, near Aleppo

Proud: Members of the Free Syrian Armypose for a photograph in Al-Rasten, near Homs

Makeshift clinics in rebel-held areas struggle to deal with dozens of casualties after more than a week of fighting.

Up to 18,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Aleppo and many frightened residents were seeking shelter in schools, mosques and public buildings, according to the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva.

Armed with Kalashnikov rifles, machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades, they are up against a military that can deploy fighter jets, helicopter gunships, tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, artillery and mortars.

Western and anti-Assad Arab states have for months been urging the Syrian opposition to unite.